Simers: Dodgers' celebration on opening day closes early

April 4, 2014

Updated 9:32 p.m.

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Broadcaster Vin Scully, left, ‘throws' the ceremonial first pitch to former Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax before things got ugly for the Dodgers in their home opener Friday, an 8-4 loss to the Giants. JAE C. HONG, AP

Broadcaster Vin Scully, left, ‘throws' the ceremonial first pitch to former Dodgers pitcher Sandy Koufax before things got ugly for the Dodgers in their home opener Friday, an 8-4 loss to the Giants. JAE C. HONG, AP

And furthermore ...

Find out T.J. Simers' thoughts on Adrian Gonzalez's role as mentor to Yasiel Puig.

LOS ANGELES – I’m shaking Sandy Koufax’s hand on opening day in Dodger Stadium, talking Final Four basketball with him and how is your work day going?

Sometimes it’s nice to be reminded how lucky one can be, and I’ll get to Yasiel Puig in a moment, but first I’d like to say hello to Tom Lasorda.

“Do you know Mike Scioscia has lost 40 1/2 pounds?” I tell him.

“That’s like taking a cup of water out of the ocean,” Lasorda says.

When it comes time for the pregame ceremony, Lasorda takes the field wearing a Dodgers jersey, the jersey stretched to capacity and general concern around the entire stadium if the button pops across his belly it might take out a whole row of fans.

Ross Porter walks by. I don’t see him, but I know it’s him because I can hear him. I don’t think the same thing would happen with Victor Rojas.

Porter is sweating as he reviews the roster for both teams. He’s been invited back to make introductions a decade after being fired by Frank McCourt, and the former Dodgers broadcaster says, “None of the guys are named Joe Smith.”

As comebacks go, though, it’s tough to top Porter’s last performance, dying two years ago and being brought back to life by doctors at UCLA’s Ronald Reagan Medical Center.

The parade of great Dodgers memories continues with Orel Hershiser and Fernando Valenzuela being introduced by Porter after Vin Scully arrives in a 1965 convertible to commemorate his 65 years with the team.

If McCourt still owned the team he would have insisted on sitting beside Scully.

Instead it’s Magic Johnson who escorts Scully to the mound, and somewhere Mike D’Antoni is relieved that Magic is busy and not tweeting nasty things about the Lakers.

The pregame ceremony make for terrific theater, and almost no one is seeing it because the Dodgers are on Time Warner Cable, which will be a good thing once the game starts as badly as it does.

But right now Scully is surrounded by his grandchildren, who have moved the mound a few feet from home plate so gramps might make the honorary first pitch with ease.

That’s when they introduce Koufax as Scully’s catcher, the two icons hugging for what should make for a great keepsake and the best the Angels could do on opening night is have Vladimir Guerrero sign a one-day contract to retire as an Angel?

Maury Wills and Don Newcombe take a bow, as well as Ron Cey, Rick Monday and Tommy Davis. Former Dodgers manager Joe Torre makes the rounds, and Porter keeps reminding the crowd, “These are your National League West Champions.”

Then the Dodgers went out and played like the Angels.

It’s 8-0 Giants after two innings, and right now that might not be the Dodgers’ biggest problem.

Before the game they have a very unhappy outfielder in Matt Kemp. He’s been added to the active roster, but he will not be starting. He’s visibly bothered because he’s made it clear he’s not the team’s fourth outfielder.

Kemp’s game is ordinarily coated in enthusiasm, and he’s usually seen dancing in the dugout before the players take the field. So is it really smart to throw him into a funk, or should he be the good teammate and just accept his backup role?

“I’ll never be OK with not playing,” Kemp says. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it. I’m not going to accept.”

But what can he do about it?

“Hit,’’ he says, and make no mistake, he adds, “I’m a team player, and this team knows that. The best thing I can do for the team is play and help it win.”

Puig, meanwhile, was just chilling at home. I wonder if he has Time Warner Cable.

Puig’s teammates were not only in uniform, but on the field taking batting practice when he arrived, giving a different meaning to the Puig Fathead giveaway April 6 than maybe what the Dodgers had intended.

Mattingly benched Puig, started Kemp and two innings later the fans in left were chanting, “We want Puig” after Kemp failed to make a difficult catch.

These are the same fans who were booing the Clippers’ Chris Paul when he was introduced. It might be the most idiotic reaction ever heard in local sports, Paul as good as it gets in representing a city as both a person and competitor.

Now these people want Puig and yet no one really knows what you’re going to get out of him. Is that the attraction?

He has so much talent, offers so much promise but how long does he get by with the built-in excuse that he’s young and inexperienced coming from where he did in Cuba?

As professional sports go now, he’ll probably be given all the time he needs and then some, making what happened here Friday nothing more than growing pains.

“We don’t think it was a big deal for us,” Mattingly says.

Think Andrew Bynum, only more remorseful and healthier with the great hope here he’s smarter and cares more about being really good.

The Dodgers lose, 8-4, with Puig watching it as a spectator.

He says all the right things later in the clubhouse through an interpreter, but I wonder if the Dodgers would have been better off putting him in a room for a little heart to heart with Scully, Koufax, Lasorda, Torre, Porter, Cey, Monday, Davis, Newcombe and Wills.

I’ll bet if we could have put a camera on the faces of Scully, Koufax, Lasorda, Torre, Porter, Cey, Monday, Davis, Newcombe and Wills as Puig explained to them about being late for opening day, Time Warner Cable would immediately have its deal with every carrier in Southern California.

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